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Lawmakers consider higher bar for constitutional amendments and a trigger to end Medicaid expansion • South Dakota Searchlight [1]
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Date: 2025-01-17
PIERRE — A committee of South Dakota lawmakers endorsed two resolutions Friday that would ask voters to approve a higher vote threshold for constitutional amendments and allow the state to end Medicaid expansion if federal support for it declines.
The committee’s 11-2 approval of both measures was the first step in the legislative process. If the measures pass the full House and Senate, they’ll go to voters in 2026. The resolutions don’t require the governor’s signature to be placed on the ballot.
One of the resolutions would raise the threshold for amending the state constitution from a simple majority to a three-fifths vote, which equates to 60%. Constitutional amendments must go to a vote of the people.
The other resolution would end the state’s expansion of Medicaid eligibility if the federal funding share for the expansion falls below 90%.
Medicaid expansion amendment
Rep. Tony Venhuizen, R-Sioux Falls, is the prime sponsor of the Medicaid expansion amendment. He also supported a resolution last year that voters approved in November, which will allow legislators to consider placing work requirements on Medicaid expansion enrollees if the federal government allows it.
Medicaid is a federal-state health insurance program for people with low incomes. In the past, Medicaid was not available to able-bodied adults younger than 65, unless they were below the poverty line and had young children. In 2022, South Dakota voters expanded Medicaid eligibility to adults with incomes up to 138% of the poverty level. The expansion is now part of the state constitution and can only be altered by voters.
States that adopt Medicaid expansion receive 90% federal funding to cover the costs for newly eligible enrollees.
Venhuizen said that President-elect Donald Trump’s administration might reduce that funding.
“All along there has been an assumption that the 90-10 share is not going to go anywhere, but I no longer think that’s a safe assumption,” Venhuizen said. “We all know that since the election, there has been a lot of talk about getting federal spending under control.”
Supporters of the proposal also argued that South Dakota should safeguard its budget from potential federal funding cuts.
The most recent Medicaid data from the Legislative Research Council says there were 28,726 Medicaid expansion enrollees as of November. Total Medicaid enrollment was 148,303. The state’s current, total Medicaid budget is about $2 billion, with the federal government covering about $1.4 billion.
Venhuizen said if voters approve the measure, it would remove Medicaid expansion from the constitution, but legislators could still decide to continue it.
Opponents said the Legislature declined Medicaid expansion for over a decade before voters approved it, making them skeptical legislators would keep the expansion program.
“The intent of the voters was to provide affordable health care for people,” said Rep. Erin Healy, D-Sioux Falls.
60% amendment proposal
Rep. John Hughes, R-Sioux Falls, introduced the proposal to set a 60% vote threshold for constitutional amendments. He said voters are tired of wealthy, out-of-state interest groups trying to mess with their constitution.
The resolution follows other recent attempts to raise the approval threshold for certain ballot measures.
In 2022, voters rejected Constitutional Amendment C, which sought to require a three-fifths vote for the approval of ballot measures that would increase taxes or fees or require the state to appropriate $10 million or more in the first five fiscal years after a measure’s passage. The measure was defeated, with 67% voting against it.
Additionally, South Dakota voters rejected Constitutional Amendment X in 2018, which would have raised the approval requirement for constitutional amendments to 55%. It was defeated with 54% voting against it.
Supporters of the current proposal argued that a higher threshold is necessary to protect the state constitution from frequent changes and to ensure that only amendments with broad public support are adopted.
Opponents said voters have spoken on the matter, and there’s no need to ask them again.
Chase Jensen, of the family agriculture and conservation advocacy group Dakota Rural Action, noted there is already a higher barrier for constitutional amendments, in the form of a higher petition signature requirement for citizens to place them on the ballot. Last year, constitutional amendments initiated by citizens required 35,017 signatures, while while other initiated measures or referred laws required 17,508 signatures.
“I find agreement with many of the facts about huge money interests flowing into our state around our constitutional amendments,” Jensen said. “However, I would propose the very clear and self-apparent solution to this issue would be reforming our campaign finance laws.”
Hughes told South Dakota Searchlight he’s open to that, but has not seen a proposal he thinks would hold up against Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, a landmark 2019 U.S. Supreme Court decision that reversed longstanding campaign finance restrictions and enabled corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited amounts on elections.
The 11-2 votes on each resolution split along partisan lines, with all 11 yes votes from Republicans and the two no votes from Democrats.
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